A/N And here we go with a shout out to the most recent of Naruto films...expect it to be like the first few chapters of this story once again.
Chapter 13 - Falling Stars
- Hōzuki Castle / Grass Country / Two Days Later -
Since its near destruction at the hands of Satori, the prison castle had been stocked full with any Kusa-nin who had either been affiliated or had conspired with the Truth of the Grass Faction, and its new wardens treated them the only way they deemed logical. Harshly. The other prisoners, who had already been there before the incident with the Box of Ultimate Bliss, were treated better then the rest, some even volunteering to help monitor the other inmates as deputy guards, while the real contingent of guards were comprised jointy of Amegakure shinobi and security forces recruited from Taiyō City.
Currently, Naoshi was in the courtyard during the first free period of the day, reserved for the original prisoners, nodding and say hello to them as he strolled among them and joined in on their small talk from time to time.
"Great day we're having, eh?" asked one, Naoshi patting him on the shoulder and replying with a short nod before moving on.
"Setting up for the next group again?"
"You guessed it." said Naoshi with a hearty chuckle, 'setting up' meaning he would sit before the Box of Ultimate Bliss, still resting in the center of the courtyard, and open it, allowing Satori to exit its confines and observe the batch of prisoners that included members of the Truth-faction.
"Free Period A is now over. Block 1 will report to the Mess Hall for midday meals. Block 2 will report to the courtyard for Free Period B." announced the prison's PA system, the inmates in the courtyard bidding Naoshi farewell as they departed for lunch, the second batch of prisoners emerging from the prison to take their place.
"Show time." said Naoshi while facing away from the Box and pressed his palms together, a white cloud of chakra beginning to emerge from his skin. "Box of Ultimate Bliss, open!" he announced, the box shuddering for a second before all four of its demonic faces glowed with a bright yellow-white hue, a drastic difference as compared to when it released a dark and evil aura before.
The box's only entrance and exit opened up and the dark purple portal located in its gaping maw turned bright orange as a stream of flame shot out like a cannon, spiralling higher and higher into the air before transforming into the body of the demon Satori, only its new appearance was anything but. It's once black feathers were now colored radiant white, and its physique had grown fuller and more nourished, looking stronger then ever. It's large fangs had shrunk in size and were not so ferocious looking, and its wings slightly larger and full with life.
It screeched much like an eagle announcing its presence in the skies and landed feet first on the Box of Ultimate Bliss, relaxing its leg joints to sit comfortably atop its home to watch the prisoners with Naoshi for the duration of the free period.
"Welcome back Satori." said Naoshi after lowering his hands, Satori gazing down at him and grinning slightly.
"Greetings." it replied courteously before it set its sights on the prisoners, its smirk frightening them beyond belief.
"Sir, we have visitors at the gate." spoke a voice into his ear, Naoshi raising a finger to the earpiece and responding before looking up at Satori and motioning towards the gate.
"I gotta go. You'll watch them for me, right?" he asked, the demon nodding slowly.
Naoshi grinned a little before he swiftly turned around and walked away from the Box towards the gates of the prison, his cloak flapping behind him with each stride. Once he reached the gate, the guards parted to allow him past and he stood with arms crossed before the large wood and iron gate as it was opened. His smile grew wider when the gates fully parted and he saw who stood with the same grin he wore when he first met him at the prison.
"Well look who it is. 'No one special' right?" said Naoshi as he extended a hand out to Maroi, the Kumo-nin chuckling at his self-given nickname.
His appearance since leaving the prison had changed from his inmate attire to that of a shinobi's, complete with baggy grey pants, knee guards, and Kumogakure's standard-issue flak jacket resting comfortably overtop the jacket he wore as a prisoner..
"Naoshi Mayumi, it's good to see you again. Finally got this place under control?" he asked before he looked over Naoshi's shoulder and noticed part of Satori's hulking form over one of the prison's towers, raising an eyebrow in wonder. "And is that supposed to be-"
"Satori? Yes, it's him. Don't worry, he's not throwing anyone in the box or anything like that."
Naoshi looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow as the one person that he had been waiting to see for the entire day came gliding up to him with a smile on her face and he hands held behind her back.
"Heh, now will you look at that. What happened to that ANBU assassin that would stop at nothing to achieve her goal?" asked Maroi to tease Ryūzetsu after coming to a stop beside Naoshi and crossing her arms, smirking at him.
She, out of the three, had changed the most. From her tattered attire she wore while undercover, and after tying her bandana, the fragment of Muku's scarf she had kept when he had been sealed into the Box of Ultimate Bliss, around his grave, she had let her hair hang down to her hips like when she was younger. Her clothes had also changed to a long green and white kimono that showed off the womanly features she had to hide to gain entry into the prison in the first place. The repression of these traits had started to come back as well after returning to a looser fitting style of dress, with her decently-sized bust noticeable through the kimono and any other clothes she wore underneath.
"Oh believe me, she's still there. This is her when he's in casual mode." said Naoshi with a chuckle after wrapping his arm around her shoulder, Maroi only taking a second to guess the relationship between the two had grown since the last time he had been there and rolled his eyes.
"Oi…"
"It's nice to see you too Maroi." replied Ryūzetsu with a grin as the prison gates slammed shut behind him and they walked together back towards the courtyard.
"To be honest, coming back here after leaving, this place seems a hell of a lot more nicer." said Maroi after glancing around at the place, Naoshi shrugging a little and dismissing the fact.
"Yeah, now that the civil war is over and theres no one trying to kill us here anymore, life's gotten pretty much back to normal. The original prisoners that had been at the prison before we got here are all pretty nice once you get to know them. I'm still not gonna forgive them for whatever crime or atrocity they committed, but someday they'll realize what they did was wrong and maybe then I'll consider forgiving them." he replied, Maroi slowly nodding his head in agreement.
When they reached the courtyard, Maroi couldn't help but laugh at how the newer prisoners stood hunched and cowering in the farthest corners of the open space, preferring to stay as far away from the Box and Satori as possible. The large creature scanned the prisoners, his slight smile sending chills down their spines, before he felt a slight shiver and he looked up to the sky when the brightly sun above started to vanish behind a distinctly large cloud.
"Huh, I thought it was going to be sunny all day…" said Ryūzetsu in intrigue before Naoshi cringed as a wave of vicious chakra hit him and Maroi like a boulder, knocking them back a little while Satori shivered and glanced down at a specific spot close to the Box.
They both looked at one another, then over to Ryūzetsu, and after seeing the same expression they had on her face, they jogged over to the Box of Ultimate Bliss and looked down onto what Satori was surprisingly so afraid of. Arising from several cracks in the concrete ground was a horrifying chakra that turned Naoshi's skin cold upon getting near it, Maroi closing his eyes and breathing out slowly so as to not lose his lunch from the effects of the vile chakra.
"What is this stuff?" he asked after recovering from the initial shock, Naoshi crossing his arms and tapping his foot on the ground several times in thought.
"No idea."
"Does it have something to do with the sky...darkening?" asked Ryūzetsu before the sky grew even darker, the clouds above the prison nearly pitch black and the gentle breeze had transformed into a fierce wind that grew steadily stronger by the second.
"What is going on?!" demanded Naoshi of the heavens as they braced themselves against the hurricane-strength gales, Satori guarding itself with its massive wings as it sat on the Box. "It was sunny literally two minutes ago!"
The wind picked up even more until it was howling over the walls and through the courtyard of the prison, threatening to knock down the three of them before an enormous rush of air swooped down from the sky, followed by a thunderous boom that was most commonly associated with an object breaking the sound barrier. They all looked to the sky and from the clouds emerged a scene only imaginable in a nightmare.
A meteorite, big enough to wipe out the entire castle if struck directly, came barreling down from the heavens and smashed into the island a mere four hundred meters from the castle's southern wall, the earth exploding in a plume of fire and molten rock while the entire island shook and knocked Naoshi, Ryūzetsu and Maroi to their knees.
"Where the fuck did that come from?!" stammered Maroi in disbelief as the massive column of smoke and fire rising from the crater, Naoshi looking back up into the sky through the hole the meteorite had made in the clouds gulping nervously.
That had only been a warning shot. There were more.
"Guys...there's more!" yelled Ryūzetsu when she noticed too, Satori looking to the sky and upon seeing the second wave of meteorites, he took to the sky to defend the prison against the onslaught from space.
"Brace yourselves!"
- Uzushiogakure -
The meteor strike on Hōzuki Castle wasn't a freak catastrophe occurring in one spot. Across the entire globe, flaming hunks of rock were passing through the atmosphere and pounding away at the surface, the villages of the world doing everything in their power to defend against the sudden attack. Taiyō City's advanced Chakra Cannons were defending the city quite well from the meteors, with the other villages utilizing theirs to fend off the oncoming assault as well, but they kept on coming, and soon enough they became obsolete in the defensive effort.
For Menma, this had been the most action he had ever gotten since defeating Indra all those years ago. Sure, fighting Kokuo was a little tough, but defending against massive meteors that could wipe out an entire village in the blink of an eye was on a whole other scale.
"We need more shinobi to the southern wall!" he yelled into his earpiece after destroying an incoming meteorite with a Tailed Beast Ball, the flaming remnants falling harmlessly outside the village's walls and tearing apart the forests outside.
"Where did these come from?! The only place I can think of is…" he thought before he looked up at the sky and right up at the one thing he hadn't expected to see until night time.
It was the moon, bright as day. And for some reason it looked bigger then he had remembered.
"Ninturo."
"Yeah boss?" replied back the Kurouzu leader.
"Send out a call to the Kage. All of them. Meeting place is at Taiyō City, tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp." said Menma quickly but clearly, Ninturo signing off immediately afterwards to complete the task.
"Menma!" yelled Kakashi as he leaped up to his spot on top of the Kage Tower, the two looking over for a moment at the southern end of the island and flinching as a massive meteorite crashed down, the devastating plume of fire and smoke rising into the sky after impact terrifying them both.
"What is it?"
"There are reports from my sources that all the villages are suffering the same thing going on here. It's like the damn apocalypse is right at our doorsteps!" he said loud enough to be heard over the sirens blaring throughout the village and the shock waves produced from each meteorite when they struck the ground.
"Hopefully we can figure out why the hell this is happening."
- Mountain's Graveyard -
"I see our venture was successful?" asked one of the four voices populating the lake of black sludge that now filled the crater to the top, the hole to the core of the earth in its center completely concealed beneath the bubbling mass.
"Yes...it was. It was easy to corrupt him. In fact, I have been corrupting him for quite some time, even before we became one."
"Good. We're still with him...correct?" asked the level-headed and calmest of the four voices.
"Yes." replied the feminine voice of the four.
The slime retracted slightly when a rogue meteorite struck the Mountain's Graveyard, the shockwave rippling through the trees surrounding the crater while the sky lit up from the explosion in caused.
"Then it is time for the second phase...is he on his way?"
"Yes...he is. We captured him soon after we attempted with the Gobi…"
"Khehehe...this is proceeding well…"
"If this fails...we resort to Plan B...correct? If he can't accomplish the goal...we must take this into our own hands…" snarled the deeper voice.
"Shut up...he's here…" ordered the first voice, the other three going silent when the trees to the north of the crater rustled and out from the foliage emerged the massive form of a turtle.
"The Sanbi...it will do for now." spoke the feminine voice before the slime that had taken control of the beast ordered it to walk into the dense lake, its body starting to sink into its depths after taking the first step.
It remained still as tendrils reached up from the sludge and wrapped around its legs and tails, pulling it deeper and deeper into the slime before it fully disappeared under the surface, the lake literally having *ate him whole. After absorbing his body and chakra, the entire lake shivered with the rush of powerful chakra and instantly expanded beyond the borders of the crater, spewing onto the grass that surrounded it and burning it away.
"It's almost time…halt the attack."
- Kumogakure -
"Jesus christ, look out!"
Nagato withdrew his hand to cover his eyes and face when a meteor struck one of the mountains surrounding the village, the brightness of the explosion and the shockwave nearly knocking him off his feet. The entire village had been fighting off the storm of meteorites, and luckily he had arrived just in time with Torazame and Sarada to participate in defending the village.
He quickly transformed into his Version 3 State and fired several consecutive spiralling rings into the sky, a blanket of large domes made purely of volatile chakra appearing in the sky and encompassing four meteorites and destroying them, removing their threat from the village.
"Ha! Nice one!" yelled Torazame from beside him on top of a house before a blur leaped up from one of the adjacent buildings and up into the sky, a second figure appearing underneath it and propelling it farther into the sky.
It was the girl they were looking for.
"What is she doing?" thought Nagato in confusement as Natsumi flew higher and higher, and after figuring it out, he smirked and widened his right eye. "Kamui!"
A portal appeared in the air behind Natsumi and out from it flew a massive spike that drove its tip deep into the final meteor, Natusmi smirking as she reared her fist back whilst covered in her Lightning Release Chakra Armor and slammed it down onto the pike. The impact shattered the top half of the spike but the force she had put behind her punch drove it through the entire meteor, cracking it and splitting the massive hunk of rock into dust and several smaller pieces that fell harmlessly around Kumogakure.
"Nice shot." she said upon landing softly next to him and Torazame, Sarada returning to them once she had taken care of defending another side of the village.
"Nice punch." replied back Nagato, her quirked up smile making him chuckle as they leaped off the house and landed on the streets below, several other Kumo-nin returning to the ground from around the village while up in his tower Darui, who had observed the entire ordeal, let out a sigh of relief.
"Lord Raikage, we just received a message from Lord Uzukage." said his right hand man, Omoi, while kneeling behind him in front of his desk.
"I have a feeling I know what it's about." he replied before quickly turning around and grabbing his Kage hat from off his desk on his way out of his office. "Come with me Omoi. Before we go we're going to give our guests a proper welcome."
Down in the village center, after the chaos had subsided and life started to return to a certain level of normalcy, Nagato, Torazame and Sarada sat down with Natsumi at a small cafe that served pastries and such to talk about their reasons for coming to the village.
"Alright, lay it on me." she said after leaning back in her chair, Nagato crossing his arms and grinning at her laid back personality.
"Well, as you can see, we're from the Akatsuki." started off Sarada, Torazame puffing on his cigarette for a moment before resting his sword up against the edge of the table and leaning back in his own chair.
"Also, we're from that competition thing the villages participated in a while back."
"Right...I remember you guys. You're Torazame Hōzuki from Kirigakure, Sarada Hatake from Uzushiogakure...and you, you're the son of the Uzukage." said Natsumi as she rested her gaze on Nagato.
"Yes, but you can call me Nagato. It's a pleasure to properly meet you." he said as he leaned across the table and held his hand out to here, Natsumi looking at it for a second and firmly grasping it with her own to shake it.
"Call me Nat." she replied with a wink, her nickname seemingly humorous to Torazame when he snickered a little.
"Nat, as in the bug? Well I could see the similarity…"
"You want to play that game sharkface?" asked Natsumi with the cock of an eyebrow, her challenge nearly making him choke on his cigar when he leaned forward in his chair and eyed her for a second.
"Ha, I like her already!" he laughed out loud, the entire group now laughing as if his were a contagious virus.
They heard footsteps approach them specifically and Nagato glanced to the left, his eyes widening a fraction of an inch when he saw Darui and Omoi approach them from the direction of the Kage Tower, and since they were both wearing travel cloaks he could safely assume that they were leaving.
"Going somewhere? We just got here." he said as he stood up from his seat and bowed slightly to both men, Darui returning the gesture before he relaxed his stance and glanced at all of them.
"You have no idea how thankful I and the village are for your timely arrival. Our Chakra Cannons were working well enough, but those meteorites were coming in faster then we could fire them, so I appreciate your assistance in defending our village." he said with a slight smile, Sarada and Torazame taking the thank you by smiling back.
"Of course."
"I just hope the other villages made it out okay too…" said Omoi as he stuck a lollipop into his mouth, Sarada's eyes widening a little upon registering his words.
"Wait, the other villages got bombarded too?"
"Indeed. There have also been reports that meteors fell on several other specific locations too, one being Hōzuki Castle in Grass Country."
"Naoshi…" thought Nagato in worry before he remembered his parents and the rest of the Akatsuki at Uzushiogakure.
"Damn. What could've caused this?" asked Torazame, Natsumi shrugging her shoulders with Sarada before Darui motioned towards the gate of Kumogakure.
"That's what we hope to find out. Lord Uzukage's called for a Kage meeting with all the villages at Taiyō City tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp. So until we get back, you can stay here at the village and see the sights if you so desire. And Nagato…" said Darui, the young Uzumaki looking at him for a second in anticipation of an answer. "Killer B is in the Valley of Clouds and Lightning if you want to go and see him. I'm sure he'd be excited if you stopped by and said hello."
"I'll be sure to do that." he replied with a nod before, with a final goodbye, Darui and Omoi departed from their little gathering to exit the village from its entrance.
"So back to what we were originally going to ask. Do you want to come back with us and be recruited into Akatsuki?" questioned Sarada, Natsumi placing her hands on her hips and thinking over the proposition for a few moments before sighing.
"Eh, I don't know. Let me think about it." she said with a shrug as she held her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth on her heels. "Besides, you guys should relax a little, especially after defending an entire village from falling space rocks. I'll tell what I think tomorrow."
Torazame glanced at Sarada and Nagato, not knowing what to say, and raised an eyebrow when she got up from her own seat, stretched a little and motioned with her hand for him to follow her towards the downtown area of the village.
"Alright. Come on Torazame, let's go find a place to stay for the night. You coming Nagato?"
"Go on ahead. I'm going to go visit B at that place Darui mentioned." he said with the wave of his hand as he strolled a couple of feet away from the table and breathed in some fresh air
"I'll take you there." said Natsumi as she walked up beside him when he left the cafe while Sarada and Torazame departed. "My clan used to own the land where the Valley of Clouds and Lightning was located and we know route to it like the palms of our hands. Besides, I want to say hi to my Godfather too."
"Killer B is your Godfather?" asked Nagato with a doubtful look, Natsumi nodding her head.
"Yeah. It sounds a little weird considering his personality, but he's the best Godfather you could ever know. Plus he's just plain badass." she said with her trademark quirked up smile, Nagato chuckling a little when he followed her out of the village and towards the direction of the valley.
"You know my grandfather knew B really well. The two were great friends." he said after a few minutes of running, the two vaulting themselves over a rocky mound of boulders as Natsumi glanced over her shoulder with a smirk.
"Really? Who was he?"
"Naruto Uzumaki, former leader of Akatsuki and Kyuubi and founder of the Akatsuki Corporation. He passed away though a few years ago due to age and of, unfortunetly, an incurable terminal illness." he said with some sadness in his voice, Natsumi surprised at the name's history for a second before she mentally slapped herself for not realizing it.
Naruto had once been one of the most powerful men alive, the Kyuubi, the leader of the most fearsome and powerful organization of shinobi in history and had been the reason behind the villages becoming friendly towards one another and ushering a new age of peace and prosperity. Then his son, the current Uzukage, became the new Sage of Six Paths after defeating pretty much the evilest guy in the world and inherited the title of Kyuubi and leader of Akatsuki, and brought peace back to the entire world for a second time. And then came this guy, Nagato, who not only possessed the chakra of a Bijuu but the Sharingan as well, he was no doubt the son of the Uzukage and the grandson of Naruto Uzumaki.
"Duh, no wonder. That's where he inherited those whisker-like birthmarks and exceptional strength." she thought stupidly before glancing back at Nagato again and smirking. "And his good looks most likely…"
She stopped focusing on him to allow herself to see where they were going, and after spotting a certain landmark she had been looking for they made a quick detour down into a deep canyon populated by deep lakes and craggy rocks and mountains. They continued on for a couple of more minutes, their footsteps barely touching the water's surface save for a few ripples and arrived at a massive mountain, the two resting their gaze on a large form sleeping up against the side of the mountain on a rocky outcropping.
The form's eight tentacles wiggled a little when it sensed their presence and stirred, one of its eyes opening and seeing them looking up at him.
"B...we have visitors." said Gyuki, the Hachibi, as he picked himself up and rested on one elbow with his palm holding up his chin, a figure snoring on his snout awaking with a snort.
"Yo, man, I was having a wonderful dream. Why you gotta interupt me?" asked Killer B with a yawn while he scratched his beard.
He had grown his hair out and looked very similar to his brother, A, and his outfit consisted of a long, dark, sleeveless vest that left his abdomen exposed, along with baggy white pants held up by a red cord, his headband hanging around his neck and of course his signature sunglasses.
He sat up in the sitting position with his legs crossed over one another and looked down a Nagato and Natsumi, a wide smile spreading across his face when he recognized them.
"Little Wasp and Uzuma-kid!" he exclaimed when, even in his ripe age within the 70s-80s range, he leaped off Gyuki's snout and landed down beside the two as if he were still 30.
He wrapped his muscular arms around Natsumi and lifted her up into the air to hug her tightly, Nagato laughing as she coughed when the breath left her lungs and she gave him a 'help me' expression.
"Imma gonna hug you so tight! Seeing you after so long, it's just so right!" he said aloud before he set her back down and ran a hand through her hair like a parent would to their child.
"Hey B." she said with a caring smile, Killer B retracting his hand and raising it up to Nagato in a fist for a fist-bump.
"How's it going Uzuma-kid? I see you've had a wardrobe change." he asked with a smirk, Nagato glancing down at his Akatsuki cloak after his fist-bump and grinning.
"Good B. And yeah, I'm apart of the Akatsuki now. Pretty cool if you ask me."
"And this is just a theory, but you're here to recruit Natsumi?" asked Killer B, Nagato nodding to answer him.
"Cool. Well, it's gonna get dark soon, and the valley at night is not very safe, even for me. I recommend you stay at Nat's place for the night. Got me?" he said as he crossed his arms and motioned towards the now setting sun.
"You live out here?" asked Nagato with a glance at Natsumi.
"Yep. Why not live where you train is my motto on that subject." she replied.
"And we'll be returning to the village to step in as temporary Raikage until Darui gets back." said Gyuki before he returned to B's Iron Armor Seal, the brother of the Fourth Raikage bidding them farewell before departing.
"So...where's your house?" asked Nagato, Natsumi giving him her quirked up smile before pointing up to the mountain's peak.
"Up there."
Instantly her Lightning Release Chakra Armor came to life around her as she bolted for the mountainside, Nagato blinking at her sudden disappearance then smiling as he accepted the unspoken challenge by racing after her in his Version 1 mode. For the first leg in the sprint to the top Natsumi was bolting up the mountains without a single wasted step while Nagato ran on all fours and used his extreme speed to catch up to her.
"See you at the top!" he yelled with a laugh as he overtook her and transformed into his Version 2 mode, the resulting shock wave produced from his feet hitting the mountain side hindering her advance for a second.
"Oh it's so on!" she yelled back as she increased the power of her chakra armor and vanished in the blink of an eye, appearing right beside Nagato as they neared the last quarter of the mountain.
They were neck and neck, each going as fast as they could go, in their race to the top. They broke through the cloud barrier and entered clear skies, the peak of the mountain within their reach. Nagato, now barely visible at all, planted all four of his hands and feet into the rockface and propelled himself higher up the face towards an obvious balcony-type house built at the top, Natsumi doing the same with a grin on her face.
They zoomed past the edge of the balcony, but the true winner was the one who grasped onto the pull-up bar built into its edge and immediately deactivated her chakra armor, pulling herself up calmly onto the balcony and waiting for her opponent to drop back down. After a few seconds of waiting with her hands on her hips Nagato hit the balcony on all fours and after surveying his surroundings for a few seconds, he sensed her chakra and turned around slowly with a frown on his face to look up at Natsumi's grin.
"Beat you." she said to tease him, Nagato rolling his eyes as he reverted back to normal and stood up from his hands and feet.
"Guess that's karma for beating you in the Arena." he said with a sigh as he looked back at the house that they had raced to get to and took it all in.
It was a cozy one story house that gave off the look of a ski lodge. The balcony and outside of the house looked to be made of wood and a metal support structure was built into the house's foundation to keep it from falling, and on the inside the tip of the mountain protruded through a hole in the floor.
"Wow, nice place you got here."
"Yeah, thanks. Come on, follow me inside." said Natsumi with a wave of her hand, Nagato following her through the open door of her home and walked towards the kitchen to get a glass of water.
"How the hell do you keep this place running?" he asked as he looked around at the electric lights and then over at the refrigerator Natsumi was using at the moment.
"Look at the mountain." she said over her shoulder, Nagato glancing at the mountain's top in the center of the living room and looked closely, seeing that instead of rock it seemed to be made out of metal.
He walked up and found a small handle built into the metal and with a grunt, he opened it up and peered inside. Beneath the hatch his eyes widened as he looked down into a hollowed out portion of the mountain filled with electric generators and pumps that would bring fresh water up from the lakes below into the house.
"Smart."
"Thanks." said Natsumi as she walked over to him after he closed the hatch.
"So besides the water for the refrigerator, what else uses it?" asked Nagato as he turned around and looked at her, Natsumi smiling as she pointed with her thumb to a secondary door leading out to the back portion of the house.
"Hot tub, for when I need to loosen up a little." she said before she held her arms behind her back and traced her front foot across the wooden floor of the lodge a little. "Would you like to use it?"
Nagato raised an eyebrow at her sudden shyness and awkwardness and chuckled a little before nodding.
"That sounds like a great idea. Give me a second." he said before he formed his Mangekyo Sharingan and teleported himself into Kamui's pocket dimension, travelling thousands of miles to reappear briefly in his room at Uzushiogakure to retrieve his swimming trunks. As the sun started to set, both at their respective homes, Nagato and Natsumi changed out of their normal clothes and into their swimwear that they would wear. Both were also thinking about thoughts they had been repressing ever since they first met one another at the arena, thoughts of what they would say to one another.
"Alright, here we go." thought Nagato before he spiralled away once again, reappearing back inside Natsumi's living room and finding out she must not be ready yet.
"Ready to relax?"
"Or maybe she is." thought Nagato with a grin as he turned around to face the direction of Natsumi's voice, and nearly lost his composure when she walked out of her own bedroom in a bikini matching the color of her white and yellow hair, her beauty beyond astounding.
It was like he was seeing her, truly, for the first time. She blushed a little as he looked her over from bottom to top, taking it all in. All of her curves in all the right places, and he had to stop himself from thinking the thoughts that women like her would make other men think.
"Wow." was all he could say without sounding like a babbling idiot, Natsumi giggling a little as her cheeks turned a whole other shade of red and she rubbed her arm.
"Uh, Nagato? Hot tub?" she asked, Nagato shaking himself out of his trance and grinning cheekily when he remembered that certain thing.
"Oh, right. Hehe, yeah. Sorry."
They walked out onto the back patio of the house and approached a hot tub built into the wooden platform, the water already bubbling and steaming. Nagato lowered his foot into it first and immediately felt good all over as the soothing touch of the water beckoned him in, and soon enough he let out a deep sigh of pure ecstasy.
"Oh...my...god. Oh my god, just...This is the best feeling, ever. Of all time." he said as he closed his eyes and leaned back against the walls of the hot tub, letting one of the bubble jets massage his back while Natsumi lowered herself in and snickered a little.
"You're damn right." she said before she took in a deep breath and let it out as the steam washed over her and relaxed every muscle in her body.
"So, Natsumi, have you considered our proposition?" asked Nagato with one eye looking at her as she brought her gaze down from the darkening sky to him.
"Yeah...maybe a little…"
"And…?" asked Nagato.
"I think I might join...but I do have one requirement." she said before she pushed herself away from her side of the hot tub and over towards Nagato, his eyes opening slightly when he felt the water move.
"And what's that?"
"I get to be with you." she said softly as she nestled up against his side and rested her head on his shoulder, Nagato glancing down at her and smiling as he met her gaze.
"Is that it? Well...I think we can make it work." he said before, in unison, they leaned towards one another their lips met just as the moon started to rise into the sky.
It was perfect.
A/N Jutsu Translations
Kamui / Authority of the Gods